Iraq Sunnis demand US exit timetable

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Iraq's leading Sunni clerics group has demanded a timetable for
the withdrawal of foreign troops as the price of their
participation in drawing up a new constitution, as more than 20
people were reportedly killed.

Italy meanwhile scrambled to secure the release of a woman
reporter kidnapped in Baghdad, a day after an ultimatum posted on
an Islamist website gave Rome 72 hours to order a pullout of its
3,000 troops.

Following talks with UN special envoy Ashraf Qazi, the Committee
of Muslim Scholars said yesterday it was willing to take part in
drafting a new constitution provided a consensus was found on a
date for the departure of US-led troops.

"We told him [Qazi] that we had conditions and that we would
discuss them with the parties that boycotted the polls and would
put forward a common stance," said spokesman Omar Ragheb.

"These demands focus on reaching a consensus with all political
parties on a withdrawal of foreign forces," he added.

The committee, which persuaded the main Sunni religious faction,
the Islamic Party, to boycott last Sunday's election, hinted that
it would press Sunni Arab insurgents to abandon their campaign of
violence if its demands were met.

"Then, the country's elders will tell the resistance: 'No need
to spill more blood'," Ragheb said.

Many observers believe that the constitution, which the national
assembly is supposed to draw up, will only command nationwide
respect if the Sunni Arab elite that dominated all previous
governments, is drawn into the process.

Italy was meanwhile rocked by a new hostage crisis following
Friday's abduction of Giuliana Sgrena, 56, correspondent for the
leftist Il Manifesto.

She was snatched after visiting a mosque where refugees have
been encamped since the devastating US-led assault on Fallujah in
November. The area has become a notorious danger zone for
journalists.

French reporter Florence Aubenas disappeared early last month as
she worked on the same story, while another Western reporter
escaped an attempted kidnapping in the same area 10 days ago.

The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said late on
Friday that "the negotiating machinery has been set in motion" to
press for Sgrena's release.

But Italian officials had no immediate comment on the
authenticity of the internet ultimatum posted in the name of the
Islamic Jihad Organisation.

Several hundred people, carrying rainbow peace flags, rallied by
torchlight outside the Rome city council to press for Sgrena's
release.

Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said Sgrena, 56, was "one of the most
competent journalists" and everything must be done to obtain her
release.

In Iraq, 16 people were killed in a string of ambushes and
clashes, including a tribal leader, one of three people gunned down
in fighting between insurgents and US troops near the restive Sunni
stronghold of Ramadi.

Two dead Iraqi soldiers were also found in the city, said
another police officer.

In the south, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in a rare bomb
attack in the largely Shi'ite city of Basra, when a booby-trapped
motorcycle exploded.

In the Sunni Arab heartland north of Baghdad, a roadside bombing
killed two US troops and wounded four, the US military said. Six
people, including three Iraqi soldiers and two children were killed
in separate incidents in Samarra.

Another soldier was killed in clashes in the nearby town of
Dhuluiya.

Meanwhile, militants loyal to an al-Qaeda linked group said they
had executed seven Iraqi security personnel abducted west of
Baghdad.

Electoral commission officials continued to tally votes, six
days after Iraq the country held its freest elections in half a
century.

With 3.3 million votes counted out of an estimated eight million
cast, the main Shi'ite coalition backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani held a commanding lead over its challengers.